My husband replies, that he is my It is certain that, far from injuring her superior and my head; that he is taller husband, the wife, in this instance, acted than me by more than an inch; that he conformably to his will; not only obeyis as rough as a bear; and that, conse-ing him, but also saving his life. St. quently, I owe him everything, and he Augustin does not venture to decide on owes me nothing. the guilt or virtue of this action; he is afraid to condemn it.

ceivable, did we not know how much almost every writer has suffered his pen to belie his heart-with what facility his own feelings have been sacrificed to the fear of enraging some evil-disposed pedant-in a word, how inconsistent he has been with himself.

A Father's Reflection.

citizens. He who was then at their head said to him gravely-" Friend Chancellor, thou oughtest to know that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ hath forbidden us to affirm otherwise than by yea or nay : he hath expressly said:-1 forbid thee to swear by heaven, because it is the throne of God: by the earth, because it is his footstool; by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the king of kings; or by thy head, be

A word on the contradictory education which we bestow upon our daughters.cause thou canst not change the colour of We inculcate an immoderate desire of a single hair. This, friend, is positive; pleasing; we dictate when nature does and we will not disobey God to please enough without us, and add to her lessons thee and thy parliament." "It is imevery refinement of art. When they are possible to argue better," replied the perfectly trained, we punish them if they Chancellor; "but be it known to thee, put in practice the very arts which we that Jupiter one day ordered all beasts of have been so anxious to teach! What burden to get shod; horses, mules, and should we think of a dancing-master who, even camels, instantly obeyed; the asses having taught a pupil for ten years, would alone resisted; they made so many reprebreak his leg because he had found him sentations, and brayed so long, that Judancing with other people? piter, who was good-natured, at last said to them, Asses, I grant your prayer: you shall not be shod; but the first slip you make, you shall have a most sound cudgelling."

Might not this paragraph be added to the chapter of contradictions?

AFFIRMATION ON OATH.

It must be allowed that, hitherto, the Quakers have made no slips.

AGAR, OR HAGAR

us, as a man of a bad heart.

We shall not say anything of the affirmations so frequently made use of by the learned. To affirm, to decide, is allowable only in geometry. In everything else let us imitate the Doctor Metaphrastes WHEN a man puts away his mistressof Molière-it may be so; the thing is his friend-the partner of his bedfeasible; it is not impossible; we shall see. he must either make her condition toleraLet us adopt Rabelais' perhaps, Mon-bly comfortable, or be regarded, amongst taigne's what know I? the Roman non liquet, or the doubt of the Athenian academy: but only in profane matters, be it understood, for in sacred things, we are well aware that doubting is not permitted. The primitives, in England called Quakers, are allowed to give testimony in a court of justice on their simple affirmation, without taking an oath. The peers of the realm have the same privilege the lay peers affirming on their honour, and the bishops laying their hands on their hearts. The Quakers obtained it in the reign of Charles II., and are the only sect in Europe so honoured.

The Lord Chancellor Cowper wished to compel the Quakers to swear like other

We are told that Abraham was very rich in the desert of Gerar, although he did not possess an inch of land. However, we know with the greatest certainty, that he defeated the armies of four great kings with three hundred and eighteen shepherds.

He should, then, at least have given a small flock to his mistress Agar, when he sent her away in the desert. I speak always according to worldly notions, always reverencing those incomprehensible ways which are not our ways.

I would have given my old companion Agar a few sheep, a few goats, a few suits of clothes for herself and our son Ismael,

ALCHYMY.

good she-ass for the mother and a pretty foal for the child, a camel to carry their luggage, and at least two men to attend them and prevent them from being devoured by wolves.

But when the Father of the Faithful exposed his poor mistress and her child in the desert, he gave them only a loaf and a pitcher of water.

have been known to ruin themselves in this pursuit.

The number of those who have believed in transmutations is prodigious, and the number of cheats has been in proportion to that of the credulous. At Paris we have seen Signor Dammi, Marquis of Conventiglio, obtain some hundred louis from several of the nobility that he might make them gold to the amount of two or

Some impious persons have asserted that Abraham was not a very tender fa-three crowns. ther that he wished to make his bastard son die of hunger, and to cut his legitimate son's throat! But again let it be remembered, that these ways were not our ways.

It is said that poor Agar went away into the desert of Beer-sheba. There was no desert of Beer-sheba; this name was not known until long after: but this is a mere trifle; the foundation of the story is not the less authentic.

It is true that the posterity of Agar's son Ismael took ample revenge on the posterity of Sarah's son Isaac, in favour of whom he had been cast out. The Saracens, descending in a right line from Ismael, made themselves masters of Jerusalem, which belonged by right of conquest to the posterity of Isaac. I would have made the Saracens descend from Sarah; the etymology would then have been neater.

It has been asserted that the word Saracen comes from sarac, a robber. I do not believe that any people have ever called themselves robbers; nearly all have been robbers, but it is not usual for them to take the title. Saracen descending from Sarah, appears to me to sound better.

ALCHYMY.

THE emphatic al places the alchymist as much above the ordinary chymist, as the gold which he obtains is superior to other metals. Germany still swarms with people who seek the philosopher's stone, as the water of immortality has been sought in China, and the fountain of youth in Europe. In France, some

The best trick that has ever been performed in alchymy was that of a Rosicrucian, who, in 1620, went to Henry, Duke of Bouillon, of the house of Turenne, Sovereign Prince of Sedan, and addressed him as follows:

"You have not a sovereignty proportioned to your great courage, but I will make you richer than the emperor. I cannot remain for more than two days in your states, having to go to Venice to hold the grand assembly of the brethren; I only charge you to keep the secret. Send to the first apothecary of your town for some litharge; throw into it one grain of the red powder which I will give you; put the whole into a crucible; and in a quarter of an hour you will have gold."

The prince performed the operation, and repeated it three times, in presence of the virtuoso. This man had previously bought up all the litharge from the apothecaries of Sedan, and got it resold after mixing it with a few ounces of gold. The adept, on taking leave, made the Duke of Bouillon a present of all his transmuting powder.

The prince, having made three ounces of gold with three grains, doubted not that with three hundred thousand grains he should make three hundred thousand ounces, and that he should in a week possess eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds of gold, besides what he should afterwards make. It took at least three months to make this powder. The philosopher was in haste to depart; he was without anything, having given all to the prince, and wanted some ready money in order to hold the states-general of her

F

metic philosophy. He was a man very sovereign of the day of justice? Thee moderate in his desires, and asked only { we adore! to thee only do we look for twenty thousand crowns for the expenses protection. Lead us in the right wayof his journey. The duke, ashamed to in the way of those whom thou hast give so small a sum, presented him with loaded with thy graces, and not in the forty thousand. When he had consumed way of the objects of thy wrath-of them all the litharge in Sedan, he made no more who have gone astray.'" gold, nor ever more saw his philosopher or his forty thousand crowns.

All pretended alchymic transmutations have been performed nearly in the same manner. To change one natural production into another, for example, iron into silver, is a rather difficult operation, since it requires two things a little above our power-the annihilation of the iron and creation of the silver.

We must not, however, reject all discoveries of secrets and all new inventions. It is with them as with theatrical pieces, there may be one good out of a thousand.

ALCORAN.

OR, MORE PROPERLY, THE KORAN.
SECTION I.

Such is the introduction. Then come three letters, A, L, M, which, according to the learned Sale, are not understood, for each commentator explains them in his own way; but the most common opinion is, that they signify Ali, Latif, Magid-God. Grace, Glory.

God himself then speaks to Mahomet, in these words:

"This book admitteth not of doubt. It is for the direction of the just, who believe in the depths of the faith, who observe the times of prayer, who distribute in alms what it has pleased me to give them, who believe in the revelation which hath descended to thee, and was delivered to the prophets before thee. Let the faithful have a firm assurance in the life to come; let them be directed by their Lord; and they shall be happy.

"As for unbelievers, it mattereth not whether thou callest them or no: they do not believe; the seal of unbelief is on their hearts and on their ears; a terrible punishment awaiteth them.

THIS book governs with despotic sway the whole of northern Africa, from Mount Atlas to the desert of Barca, the whole of Egypt, the coasts of the Ethiopian Sea to the extent of six hundred leagues, Syria, Asia Minor, all the countries round the Black and the Caspian Seas (excepting "There are some who say, 'We bethe kingdom of Astracan) the whole em- lieve in God and in the Last Day,' but in pire of Hindostan, all Persia, a great their hearts they are unbelievers. They part of Tartary; and in Europe, Thrace, think to deceive the Eternal; they deMacedonia, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia,ceive themselves without knowing it. Greece, Epirus, and nearly all the islands as far as the little strait of Otranto, which terminates these immense possessions.

In this prodigious extent of country there is not a single Mahometan who has the happiness of reading our sacred books; and very few of our literati are acquainted with the Koran, of which we almost always form a ridiculous idea, notwithstanding the researches of our really learned men.

The first lines of this book are as follow:-"Praise to God, the sovereign of all, worlds-to the God of mercy, the

Infirmity is in their hearts, and God himself increaseth this infirmity," &c.

These words are said to have incomparably more energy in Arabic. Indeed, the Koran still passes for the most elegant and most sublime book which has been written in that language.

We have imputed to the Koran a great number of foolish things which it never contained. It was chiefly against the Turks, who had become Mahometans, that our monks wrote so many books, at a time when no other opposition was of much service against the conquerors of